A Surrealist self-portrait by Frida Kahlo could best the artist's auction record when it is offered by Sotheby's in New York this November.
El Sueño (La Cama) (the dream, the bed), painted in 1940, depicts a slumbering Kahlo wreathed in vines and floating in the sky, while a large skeleton, wired with explosives and clutching a bouquet, lies atop the bed's canopy. The work references real life: Kahlo actually did place a smaller papier-mâché skeleton, named Juda, atop her bed, to symbolise the continuity between life and death, a theme prevalent throughout her work. Her husband, the artist Diego Rivera, would joke that Juda was her lover.
The oil on canvas, which measures 74cm by 98cm, has been not been guaranteed, though this does not rule out the possibility of it being pre-sold closer to the auction. Should it sell near its low estimate, it will achieve the artist's highest price at auction. This title is presently claimed by Diego y yo (1949), depicting the artist and Rivera, which netted $34.9m (with fees) at Sotheby's New York in 2021. Kahlo's paintings are understood to have sold for more on the private market.
Moreover, should the work surpass its low estimate, it could also break the record for the most expensive work by any female artist, which currently stands at $44.4m for Georgia O Keefe's Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1 (1932), made at Sotheby's New York in 2014.
El Sueňo is one of a number of gems from a major private collection to have been consigned to the November sale, Sotheby's announced today. Other highlights from the collection include paintings and works on paper by Salvador Dalí, Dorothea Tanning, René Magritte and Max Ernst, though for now only the Kahlo has received a public estimate.
Dorothea Tanning, Interior with Sudden Joy (1951)
While Sotheby's has declined to identify the collection, The Art Newspaper understands it to be that of the Turkish-American record label executive Nesuhi Ertegun and his wife Selma. Nesuhi died in 1989, and two years later his collection was shown, alongside that of his friend, Daniel Filipacchi, at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York, for the exhibition Surrealism, two private eyes. Every work announced by Sotheby's today was exhibited at this Guggenheim show as part of the Nesuhi Ertegun collection. In the exhibition catalogue, the museum's then director, Thomas Krens, described both collections as "perhaps the finest holdings of Surrealist art in private hands today".
Selma, who was 35 years Nesuhi's junior, died in December 2024. She is survived by the two children she shared with her husband.
The couple were related to another prominent collector of Surrealism, the interior designer Mica Ertegun, who was married to Nehusi's brother, Ahmet. The Mica Ertegun collection was sold at Christie's New York last year, led by Magritte’s L'empire des lumières (1954), which broke the artist's record, making $121.m (with fees).
The consignment of the Nesuhi and Selma Ertegun collection comes hot off the heels of a major sale for the category at Sotheby's in London this week, of art from the Hyde Park home of Pauline Karpidas. Anchored by a trove of 23 Surrealist works, the sale made a total of £73m (with fees) against a £60m high estimate (all estimates calculated without fees), becoming the most expensive single-owner collection ever sold in Europe. Leading the sale was Magritte's La Statue Volante which made £10.1m with fees.
Surrealist art appears to be cresting a wave. According to a report released this month by Sotheby's and ArtTactic, auction sales for this category have increased from $726.1m to $800.7m and the genre’s share of the global art market has nearly doubled from 9.3% to 16.8%.
